Ranting Discussion ~ Social Media Management Tools

I have talked about the dilemma I face with all the social media outlets and how I get my posts out to them. My standard approach right now is a mix of the Jetpack Publicize, IFTTT, FB push to Twitter and Hootsuite. Somehow I managed to program Hootsuite to do a second blast of a post in the evenings. Don’t know how I did it, or where to even change the message text. I am not going to complain though. To me it is one less thing I have to do manually.

Today though, I want to talk about actually keeping up and reading everyone else’s posts. Yesterday, I was getting sick of going from tab to tab looking at all the social media sites. It occurred to me that they are all loaded in Hootsuite, so I was just going to open that. I was greeted with this warning:

So I think, ok, I’m using it as an app in Hootsuite, I don’t really need to upgrade. I go ahead and try to adjust the settings of my home feed and get this:

Hmm, must have to reconnect to get my options. Click Connect. Asks me to login to my Instagram. Sure, no problem. Then I get this:

Ok, wait a minute here. So I can’t just use the app anymore? I have to actually use it as a Social Network? Well crap. Now I’m faced with the dilemma. Is Hootsuite and the convenience of having everything in one place, worth actually paying for? I went on a mission to try and find something comparable. I didn’t get a lot of choices. I just got a lot of Hootsuite recommendations. Now, if I wanted to just stick with using FB, Twitter and Google+, I wouldn’t have to upgrade. But I’ve found myself getting sucked into other sites. I know it seems like I’m a little behind the ball here, but I’ve become a Reddit addict in the last few days. Reddit I can get as an app, but for how long? Plus, the Instagram app now only allows me to see my own profile. Not what I want.

Then there is the mobile problem I have with Hootsuite. It won’t let me post from my phone. Not sure what the problem is, and have never contacted their support to find out. Until I resolve that, the mobile version is nothing other than a mobile viewing tool. It could actually be more useful and worth paying for in that instance too.

Now, I am not the greatest Googler. Which is why I wrote this post. I am sure some of you have found a solution to putting everything together in one place. My question for you all is this. Do you use a service like Hootsuite, and do you pay for it? If you pay for it, do you find it worth the cost? I’m not really talking about posting to these networks. More of an easier way to narrow down what I really want to see in each network and have it all in one place.

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